Email has become the preferred means of delivery of information to and from businesses and individuals. Yet, security of email transmissions remains problematic. For example, businesses may desire to deliver account statements, financial reports, medical information, transaction materials, legal documents, and other private data via email to reduce cost, to speed transmission, and for other business reasons. However, privacy concerns, HIPAA regulations, and good business practices necessitate that care must be taken to provide secure and confidential transmission of these files or attachments to the proper recipient.
Various systems and methods of email transmission have been proposed, are in use, and may be adequate for some needs. Some of these systems have minimal security. For instance, a password may be sent in the clear in one email and the private data may be sent encrypted in a second email; the password from the first email is then used to decrypt the private data. Or information on how to generate a password (for instance, “use your birth year followed by your zip code as your password”) may be sent in an email to enable the recipient to self-generate a password to decrypt an attachment. Others of these systems are cumbersome to install and to keep operational or the authentication method required may be unhandy or burdensome to use.
There is a need for a system and method that is convenient for both the sender and the recipient to use, while providing the recipient secure and confidential access to an unencrypted digital file.